Yet Another BBC Host Cops to Sex Abuse

(Newser)
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BBC idols continue to tumble in a continuing sex abuse investigation that's forcing the broadcaster to report on itself. The latest disgraced icon: Radio personality Stuart Hall, 83, who has admitted to 14 charges of indecent assault against girls. The youngest of his 13 victims was just nine years old, a court heard. Hall "is all too aware that his disgrace is complete," his lawyer says. In attacks that ranged from 1967 to 1985, "Hall would first approach under friendly pretenses and then bide his time until the victim was isolated," said a prosecutor.

The investigation, which stemmed from scores of allegations against the late Jimmy Savile, has made suspects of many aging British entertainment legends, from Gary Glitter to Rolf Harris, not to mention a BBC driver and a publicist. "In American terms, it is as if Captain Kangaroo, Dick Clark, and Jerry Lewis were suddenly being accused of committing sexual crimes dating back 30 or 40 years," writes Sarah Lyall in the New York Times, calling the investigation—which has reportedly cost some $2.7 million so far—"one of the more ambitious, and possibly quixotic, law enforcement investigations in Britain in recent years." (Read more BBC stories.)

I always said that BBC stands for British Bullocks Corporation, but now I realize it really stands for British Bullocks and Child molesters.

fractal

May 2, 2013 1:46 PM CDT

These old men grew up in a time when this sort of behavior was tolerated. I had an uncle who was a vice-prez in Coca-Cola. And he did this shit to many of the women in the family---I can only IMAGINE what was going on at his work! The poor secretaries... While he lived too far away to have much contact with me, my sister was sent to visit the cousins and she was attacked---of course she never told the parents---they never believed kids back then. Finally, years later, as he was starting to lose it mentally, he got so blatant with it that the family had an intervention. He stroked out at the intervention, and for the next 10 years or so, was only able to say the word "NO!", while rotting in the nursing home. To this day, neither his wife or his sister (my mother) believe he did anything wrong---good Catholic denial.